Gawker: nicholas kristof

The Twitterati Hold Hands with George Clooney's Hose

Owen Thomas — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:26:38 EST

On Twitter, no brush with celebrity can go unremarked. Guess which member of the Twitterati slept with George Clooney and which one held hands at Ryan Seacrest's workplace!

British tabloid reporter Simon Crisp inadvertently became the story.

Talking Points Memo blogger Matt Cooper thought about his equipment.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof lived out every straight woman's fantasy.

Patty Rodriguez, a writer for Ryan Seacrest, probed workplace boundaries.

KNBC TV personality Shira Lazar did nothing to improve the reputation of TV personalities.

Anyone else's tweets we should keep an eye on? Send us more Twitter usernames, please.

Self-Improvement, 140 Characters at a Time

Owen Thomas — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:45:38 EST

Today's tweets: Ashton Kutcher tried to be more tolerant, the New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones tried to be more zen, and a guy who dropped out of journalism school tried to be more drunk.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof was at Davos and you weren't.

Self-described J-school dropout Reed Kavner drank and then drank some more.

Recent Twitter adopter Ashton Kutcher apologized for being a whiny jerk.

Former G4TV producer turned Late Night with Jimmy Fallon behind-the-scenes man Gavin Purcell didn't know what to make of other people's interest in him.

New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones tried to be more Zen, which sounds like a good idea after his bus-fare freakout.

Anyone else's tweets we should keep an eye on? Send us more Twitter usernames, please.

Life Is Good for the Twitterati

Owen Thomas — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:49:09 EST

The media live deeply ordinary lives. Okay, deeply ordinary lives in which their bosses buy them caviar. The Twitterati report in with a feast for the senses:

Wired editor Joe Brown lived large on Si Newhouse's dime.

Gawker alum Choire Sicha gave an actor the hairy eyeball.

Slate columnist John Dickerson got in quality time with the kids.

Attention-seeking omnimedia entrepreneuse Sarah Lacy primped for a fellow pundit.

NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof even enjoyed a funeral.

Nick Kristof's Sexy Sex Speech

Pareene — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:05:22 EDT

Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who is much better at heroically rescuing orphans from warzones than he is at writing a regular political column, has a very great and original idea. He thinks that Barack Obama, who is now the Democratic nominee for president, should write and deliver a speech about gender, much like he did about race, that one time. What a great and original suggestion! We loved the idea when some HuffPo lady suggested it back in April, when Slate ladies suggested it for Hillary in March, when Ellen Goodman suggested it in May, and we love it now. Unlike all those ladies who suggested it, though, Kristof has manly suggestions for a manly speech on gender issues.

Obama should point out shocking facts like "We aren't always aware of our biases" (people love to be told that!) and "A conservative may end up the first woman president" (why would Obama say this??) and "Politics can make a difference for women" (can it get them a MAN? lol j/k).

Then he suggests that Obama use this speech on gender issues, the speech it would probably condescending for him to make, as it usually is when smart boys play "feminist," to save all the ladies and babies in Iraq and Africa, which, while a very noble and important cause, really has fuck-all to do with the gender issues that colored coverage of Hillary Clinton's campaign and exposed deep reservoirs of sexism in the American body politic.

Then Kristof invites you to comment on this column on his Facebook page! You can be a Knight or a Vampire.

The Sex Speech [NYT]

"No Graphic In Human History Has Saved So Many Lives"

Ryan Tate — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:48:55 EDT

Design blog Signal vs. Noise today reminded everyone of the 1997 Times infographic reproduced above. Nicholas Kristof, whose article on world disease featured the chart, declared in an old-but-recently-surfaced email that "no graphic in human history has saved so many lives in Africa and Asia." Apparently it persuaded billionaire Bill Gates to start donating his money to disease prevention instead of global internet access. Kristof said the Microsoft founder was too lazy to read the full, 3,500-world article:

in september i traveled with bill gates to africa to look at his work fighting aids there. while setting the trip up, it emerged that his initial interest in giving pots of money to fight disease had arisen after he and melinda read a two-part series of articles i did on third world disease in January 1997. until then, their plan had been to give money mainly to get countries wired and full of computers.

bill and melinda recently reread those pieces, and said that it was the second piece in the series, about bad water and diarrhea killing millions of kids a year, that really got them thinking of public health. Great! I was really proud of this impact that my worldwide reporting and 3,500-word article had had. But then bill confessed that actually it wasn’t the article itself that had grabbed him so much—it was the graphic. It was just a two column, inside graphic, very simple, listing third world health problems and how many people they kill. but he remembered it after all those years and said that it was the single thing that got him redirected toward public health.

No graphic in human history has saved so many lives in africa and asia.

Indeed. There really should be prizes for this sort of thing. For runner-up, I nominate Entertainment Weekly's 21 Bad Movie Hairdos, which, through extensive distribution in American salons, has prevented untold suffering from happening in the first place.

It's not everyday you get to see Angelina...

abalk — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:40:05 EDT

It's not everyday you get to see Angelina Jolie tear up in front of a blinking Nick Kristoff, but if your fantasies involve the star of Tomb Raider getting lachrymose in front of a Times columnist, today's your lucky day. [Jezebel]

Nick Kristof's Wife Leaves The 'Times'

Doree Shafrir — Thu, 31 May 2007 18:05:27 EDT

A tipster who just tried to email Sheryl WuDunn—better known to you as Mrs. Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, but also a Pulitzer-winning journalist in her own right (okay, she won with her husband! But still)—has left the Times to write a book... with her husband, as per her auto-reply.

Thank you for your email. I actually will not see this. After many wonderful years at The Times, I have left to write a book with my husband on women in the developing world, and then I will take a job at a firm on Wall Street. If you want to reach an editor in the Business News section, please email Dan Niemi at xxxx@nytimes.com.
If you would like to reach me, you may send an email to wudunn2003@xxxxxxxx

Have a great day!
Sheryl WuDunn

No, you have a great day!

Nick Kristof Ownz The Myspace!

Emily Gould — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 16:18:55 EST

Sure, you know that Nick Kristof is a Pulitzer-winning Times Op-Ed columnist. You probably also know that he used to be associate managing editor of that newspaper. And maybe you were even dimly aware that he has a TimesSelect blog, 'On The Ground,' where he posts dispatches from his exotic visits to various underprivileged peoples. And you might recall that he picks a lucky gal (or guy! maybe) to accompany him to Africa each summer. But did you know that he is all up on The MySpace?

Nick has some predictable late-boomerish music tastes, we soon learn:

Simon and Garfunkel. Mozart. Stay with me, I'm gonna blow your mind. Early Madonna. U2 in general, but mostly because I like Bono. Cheap Trick: my college roomate loved them.

Whoa, our mind is totes unblown. His 'who I'd like to meet' does pack a few more surprises, though:

Julia Roberts. Princess Di, if she were alive. Also the Dalai Lama. Maybe Osama bin Laden and Musa Hilal (a leader of the Janjaweed in Sudan). Princess Masako of Japan. President Hu Jintao of China.

Julia and Osama are totally invited to our fantasy dinner party scenario too, in a way. (An opposite-day way). But perhaps the most revelatory detail is to be found by perusing Nick's list of heroes:

Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mukhtar Mai (if you don't know her, google her, she's Bono-cool)

That is a filthy lie, Nick. How could anyone be as cool as Bono? No. Even if she was Glamour mag's 2005 woman of the year!

Kristof On The Ground [MySpace]

Media Bubble: Ironies Abound

abalk2 — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 10:20:13 EST

A group of Columbia journalism students allegedly cheated on an ethics exam. There go those cushy Voice gigs. [Radar]

They're not striking just yet at the Philadelphia dailies, although that may have changed by the time this item posts. [NYT]

Daily Show/Colbert Report executive producer Ben Karlin is leaving both shows, will be replaced at TDS by current head writer David Javerbaum. [Variety]

Another "whither newspapers" piece from Jack Shafer. You know what the best part of Jack Shafer's column is? That link at the bottom to "Shafer's hand-built RSS feed." It's like a big, glaring, "Fuck you, Slate!" Anyway, whatever, thought we'd share. [Slate]

Jon Friedman doesn't understand why people call Nick Kristof "sanctimonious." He seemed perfectly modest when Jon interviewed him! Honestly, how are Friedman's ears so fucking big when there's plainly nothing in between them? [Marketwatch]

The idea of a member of the Murdoch clan attacking anyone else for "megalomania" is as ironic as, well, cheating on an ethics exam. [Guardian]

Remainders: Next Week's Gonna Be Even Slower?!

Doree Shafrir — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 18:40:01 EST

The Coop, set to music. [DotComedy]
Mike Tyson to be a whore. [StarPulse]
Nicholas Kristof doesn't have to reveal his FBI sources. [Media Mob]
Tom and Katie's wedding guests, deconstructed. [TMZ]

Nick Kristof Picks His African Bride

Jesse — Tue, 23 May 2006 11:35:05 EDT

The op-ed page of today's Times no doubt brings heartbreak to some 3,799 college students nationwide; Nick Kristof's column carries the news that he has picked someone else to go on a free trip to Africa with him this summer. The lucky winner? 23-year-old Casey Parks, of Jackson, Miss. Casey, a graduate j-student at the University of Missouri, won Kristof over with her tale of a hardscrabble youth and a desire to see the world. She wrote: "I saw my mother skip meals. I saw my father pawn everything he loved. I saw our cars repossessed. I never saw France or London." (Or, apparently, the merits of parallelism.) Casey's full essay is available on Kristof's website, along with essays by the other 12 vanquished finalists, including our own precocious Henry the Intern. But the best part on Kristof's site is the video clip of him calling Casey with the big news. You'd think a man who can swashbuckler through Africa and buy sex slaves' freedom in a single bound wouldn't seem quite so profoundly awkward when tasked with making a simple phone call.

Win a Trip With Nick Kristof [NYT Video]
The Drumroll, Please [NYT]

Nick Kristof's Just Not That Into You

Jesse — Mon, 08 May 2006 12:45:27 EDT

Still holding out hope to win your dream trip through a malarial jungle with Nick Kristof? Bad news for you, then, kiddies. We're reliably informed that the Times has winnowed the list of applicants down to about 15 finalists, and those finalists have been notified and asked to send along academic transcripts. (You've got to be an enrolled student at an American university for the change to spend time on a bedbug-infested mattress with Nick and his chin dimple, alas.) So if you haven't heard from them, you're no longer in it. Sorry about that.

The good news, however, is that if your ambition is to report not from Africa but rather from the rarefied reaches of Seattle society, we understand Mike Kinsley is still accepting new applications.

Win a Trip With Nick Kristof [NYT]
Earlier: Michael Kinsley Wants a Date With Tom Friedman

Michael Kinsley Wants a Date With Tom Friedman

Jesse — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 17:30:38 EDT

You already know about the Times' "Win a Trip With Nick Kristof" contest. On Slate today, Michael Kinsley wonders why things should stop there, and he considers similar contests with other Times op-edsters. Fist, he cites Nick's pitch:

"I'm looking for a masochist. If your dream trip doesn't involve a five-star hotel in Rome or Bora-Bora, but a bedbug-infested mattress in a malarial jungle as hungry jackals yelp outside—then read on." He adds, "Don't expect comfort so much as diarrhea." How on earth did Kristof know about my bedbugs-and-jackals-and-diarrhea fantasy? Bob Woodward promised me he wouldn't tell anyone else.

Then he imagines the come-on for "Win a Trip With Tom Friedman":

"The world, as you know, is flat. If you're not afraid to fall off the edge, if you dream of running up travel expenses that would finance Hannibal's army, if you fantasize about meeting presidents and prime ministers and reminding them that the world is flat, if you can go to Davos and Aspen and Bilderberg and still get it up for the Bohemian Grove, then you may be the right person to accompany me on a unique 'World Is Flat World Tour.' We will be staying in the best hotels and interviewing world leaders day and night. You may find yourself discoursing in Arabic about the flatness of the world with a group of Saudi princes, or even asking the Pope himself, 'Do you agree with Tom Friedman that the world is flat?' All it takes to apply is a 700-word essay on 'Why the World is Flat.'" Tom himself will choose the winner, and they'll immediately be off to St. Petersburg, where you will get to operate the PowerPoint for Tom's presentation titled: "Flatter Will Get You Nowhere: The Limits of World Flatness."

There's more.

Like, "Win a Trip With Maureen Dowd":

"Are you girl enough to come shopping with me and my best friend, Jill? Can you dis the defense department and find the shoe department at the same time?"

And some Washington Post equivalents, like "Win a Trip With George Will" ("Finally admitting his uncanny resemblance to Mr. Peabody, the scholarly time-traveling dog on the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon show, George takes a lucky companion back to the 18th century, where they will explain the original meaning of the Declaration of Independence to its signers" and "Win a Trip With David Broder" ("You'll interview more lieutenant governors than there are stars on the flag").

But we know which contest we most want to enter: "Win a Trip With Michael Kinsley." That's where you sit at home and make toss off bon mots and witticisms about stuff in the news.

Wonder what that would be like?

Win a Date With E.J. Dionne [Slate]
Earlier: Win a Romantic Getaway With Nick Kristof!

Media Bubble: AMI Learns That Firing Employees Saves Money

Jesse — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 16:50:41 EDT

• Yesterday's American Media bloodletting will cut the mag publisher's workforce by 9 percent. [WWD]
• And will save the company about $10 million. [NYP]
• With Katie Couric heading to CBS, NBC is days away from a deal to bring Meredith Vieira to fill her clickety stiletto heels. [NYT]
• Gabe Sherman agrees: Times Discovery Channel might be on its way out. Plus Hearst in the new tower, Lapham at Michael's, and Raines at Harvard. [NYO]
• The New York Times has finally done something to make Jack Shafer happy. So now he'll cancel his subscription. [Slate]
• The Week names Nick Kristof Columnist of the Year. We imagine Andrea Peyser is devastated. [E&P]

Media Bubble: Sudan, Fun for the Whole Family!

Jesse — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 13:30:24 EST

• Times happily runs advertising section from Sudan, whose leaders — as Times columnist Nick Kristof likes to point out — are encouraging genocide. [NYDN]
• Lewis Lapham, as he steps down from Harper's editorship, will keep working. And keep smoking. [WP]
• One Park, a reality show about life at AMI, moves closer to happening. Except that the lawyers are against it, chief David Pecker is against it, and the company doesn't have the rights to the name "One Park." But, you know, otherwise things are good. [WWD]
• CJR disses Marketwatch media writer Jon Friedman. Hard. [CJR Daily]

Win a Romantic Getaway With Nick Kristof!

Jesse — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 13:22:16 EST

Think the only benefits of TimesSelect are Maureen Dowd's musings and a blog by that Frank Rich look-alike? Oh no. Not at all. Yesterday evening, TimesSelect members became the very first to learn about this incredibly exciting opportunity:

Dear TimesSelect Subscriber,

We want you, a loyal TimesSelect subscriber, to know about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity before we announce it to the public. On March 14, we will launch the "Win a Trip With Nick Kristof" contest.

Open to all students enrolled in American colleges and graduate schools, the contest will award one winner an all-expenses-paid trip with Nick Kristof, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times. To enter, each student must write an essay no longer than 700 words explaining why he or she is Nick's perfect traveling companion.

An all-expense paid trip on the Times? A chance to examine the chin dimple up close? It's almost enough to make us get into grad school quick, to become eligible.

Of course, we really hope we'll be going someplace nice with Nick. Paris is lovely in April. Darfur, on the other hand, we understand is dreadful this time of year.

Nicholas D. Kristof [NYT]

Media Bubble: Mags, 'Journal' Love Celebs

Jesse — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 13:40:01 EST

• Remember how Ad Age told us last week that when the biannual circ numbers came out they'd show the celeb weeklies way up and O, The Oprah Magazine way down? Well, they came out, and they did. [NYT]
• Designer working on WSJ overhaul is urging the paper to consider more fashion and celeb coverage. Dow Jones execs can't wait to catch the celeb-mags circ mojo — and we can't wait for the stipple portrait of Jessica Simpson. [St. Pete Times]
• Nick Kristof raises $727K to send Bill O'Reilly to Darfur. It's amazing how much money you can raise when people will never actually have to fork it over. [E&P]

Media Bubble: This Is CNN

Jesse — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 15:34:50 EST

• Fighting back against Fox News, whose ratings dwarf CNN's, Jon Klein savors small victories. Which makes sense, because there ain't been a whole lot of big ones. [NYT]
• Conde Nast is running out of ad inventory. [WWD]
• Nick Kristof manages the delicate trick of making Jack Shafer feel a little bit bad for Bill O'Reilly. [Slate]
• Icahn and Wasserstein's TW plans don't don't help thing. [NYT]

Panhandling Pundits: Help Nick Help Bill Help Us All

Jesse — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 12:45:50 EST

We like it when our op-edsters climb down from their inky pedestals and mix things up a bit. Which is why it's always a happy day at Gawker HQ when Nick Kristof decides to spend his 750 words taunting Bill O'Reilly about the Fox News blowhard's unwilling to bloviate about real problems instead of imagined ones. Kristof wants O'Reilly to travel to Darfur with him, and today's trash-talking is even more fun that the usual:

A few days ago, I finally got my answer. Mr. O'Reilly declared in his column: "I do three hours of daily news analysis on TV and radio. There's no way I can go to Africa."

No need to give up so easily, Bill. With a satellite phone, you can do your show from anywhere.

But maybe Mr. O'Reilly's concern is cost, so I thought my readers might want to give him a hand. You can help sponsor a trip by Mr. O'Reilly to Darfur, where he can use his television savvy to thunder against something actually meriting his blustery rage.

If you want to help, send e-mail to sponsorbill@gmail.com or snail mail to me at The Times, and tell me how much you're willing to pay for Mr. O'Reilly's expenses in Darfur. Offers will be anonymous, except maybe to the N.S.A.

Funny thing is, we were actually considering donating. Until we read Kristof's next graf:

(Note: pledges cannot be earmarked. It is not possible to underwrite only Mr. O'Reilly's outgoing ticket to Darfur without bringing him home as well.)

Maybe at least you could send him on a world tour instead, Nick? We'd kick in for that.

Helping Bill O'Reilly [NYT]